NEW SINGLE “LAMBO” FEATURING VYBZ KARTEL OUT NOW
Nigerian afropop royalty Mr Eazi and massively influential producer
Dre Skull (Vybz Kartel, Popcaan) have announced plans to release the
dancehall-driven joint mixtape Yard & Yanga later this year, via Dre Skull’s Mixpak
Records and Eazi’s emPawa Africa. The project rollout launches today with the
release of “Lambo,” (Stream HERE) a hypnotic bashment banger featuring the
unmistakable vocals of dancehall icon Vybz Kartel.
With a title that references both a popular patois colloquialism for Jamaica as well as the Nigerian Pidgin term for showing off, Yard and Yanga is an afro-diasporic
celebration highlighting the longstanding link between West African and Caribbean
music, and the ways in which they interplay.
Years in the making, the mixtape is the result of the longstanding friendship between Mr Eazi, who helped popularize Afrobeats globally through hits like “Leg Over” and “Skin Tight,” and Dre Skull, the producer behind some of modern dancehall’s most celebrated releases including Vybz Kartel’s Kingston Story (2011) and Popcaan’s Where We Come From (2014) and Forever (2018) albums. Mr Eazi and Dre Skull previously collaborated on “Sekkle and Bop” (also featuring Popcaan), and last year’s effervescent dancehall pop single “Dance Pon Me.”
Dancehall has, quietly, long been an ingredient in Mr Eazi’s sound, dating back to his very first singles in the early 2010s. “In an alternate universe, I would have been an Afro dancehall artist,” explains Mr Eazi. “This is not Afro dancehall, this is dancehall but my own interpretation.”
Vybz Kartel made for a natural collaborator on “Lambo,” as not only is he dancehall’s most celebrated and popular contemporary artist but he also has enjoyed a long-running and fruitful creative partnership with Dre Skull, dating back to the now-seminal 2009 single “Yuh Love” and 2011’s critically acclaimed Kingston Story, “Kartel is such a generational talent and I had no doubt he would bring a special energy to this record and compliment Eazi’s infectious hook,” Dre Skull says.
U.K.-based illustrator Kione Grandison designed the single’s cover art, a hand-drawn image which takes inspiration from both West African and Caribbean folk/street art, seamlessly tapping into their shared sensibilities.
Listen to Lambo now.
Leave a Reply